1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to cigarette lighters, and more particularly to an ultra-thin cigarette lighter in a card-like format having a taper terminating in a blade-shaped bottom edge which lends itself to easy insertion between the corresponding faces of the inner and outer wrappers of a standard crushable cigarette pack so that the smoker is never at a loss for a light, the flat lighter also functioning as a stiffener for the pack to prevent crushing thereof.
2. Prior Art
In the past, safety matches were usually used to light cigarettes, such matches being available in match books or match boxes. In recent years matches have largely been supplanted by cigarette lighters capable of supplying hundreds of lights before being exhausted, thereby doing away with the problems involved in striking matches and of disposing of burnt-out matches.
The modern cigarette lighter no longer uses gasoline which requires a wick, for the fuel is now a liquefied hydrocarbon mixture under pressure in a reservoir. Fuel vapor is emitted through a valve-controlled nozzle, the vapor being ignited by sparks generated by a flint abraded by a thumb wheel or by a spark produced across a spark gap to which a voltage is applied by an activated piezoelectric element. Various arrangements have been heretofore developed to permit the user of the lighter to open the gas valve as the thumb wheel is turned so as to coordinate the action of the wheel and valve or as the piezoelectric element is activated.
In the typical low-cost disposable lighter which must be discarded after the fuel is spent, the valve-actuating lever is provided with a thumb key that is placed directly adjacent the abrading thumb wheel. In this way the operator is able with his thumb to concurrently turn the wheel and depress the key to cause the valve to open to discharge vapor which is ignited by sparks generated by the abraded flint.
Existing cigarette lighters which make use of a flint or a piezoelectric element to produce sparks, are invariably relatively thick, three-dimensional structures regardless of their overall shape. Thus should the lighter have a box-like shape or take the form of a rod or cylinder, the thickness of the lighter, even in so-called slim models, is at least 3/8th of an inch and more commonly one-half inch thick.
The standard "soft" cigarette pack houses a cluster of twenty cigarettes within a paper-foil inner wrapper enveloped by a cellophane or transparent plastic-film outer wrapper. To obtain access to the contents, the smoker first uncoils a tear-off ribbon that severs the head of the outer wrapper to expose the inner wrapper which is then torn open at one side to form a port from which cigarettes can be removed.
The shape of a conventional cigarette lighter, regardless of its format, is such that the lighter must be kept separate from the pack. Thus while the usual breast pocket in a man's shirt is large enough to accommodate a cigarette pack, one cannot comfortably also accommodate the ordinary cigarette lighter. Hence, the lighter, when used by a man, is usually stored in his jacket or trouser pocket. Women tend to keep their cigarette packs and lighters loosely in handbags.
The standard cigarette pack made of foil paper and plastic film wrappers is soft and compressible, and is therefore easily crushed when subjected to pressure which may deform or mutilate the contents. Because such crushing is a fairly common experience, some smokers acquire rigid cases to store their soft packs. But crushing is by no means the only problem, for what often happens is that the smoker, after using his lighter, will forget to return it to his pocket or wherever he normally stores the lighter. He may lay it on a table or some other place and then when he later wishes to light up, the smoker may not be able to find his lighter.
One prior solution to this common problem is that disclosed in the Sanchez U.S. Pat. No. 2,998,716 in which a watch-shaped lighter is strapped onto the wrist. Apart from the practical difficulty of using the lighter at a wrist position is the fact that it pre-empts space normally occupied by a wristwatch.
The Leibow U.S. Pat. No. 2,782,910 suggests another solution. This patent discloses a special mounting to support both a cigarette pack and a lighter, the mounting serving as a rigid support for the pack. The hinged cover of the mounting houses a cigarette lighter mechanism. This special mounting is relatively elaborate and costly.
In the Pagani U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,899, the compact lighter disclosed therein has a side clip and is so dimensioned that it may be clipped onto one side of a cigarette pack, thereby adding substantially to the width of the pack. This precludes its insertion in the confines of a shirt pocket. However, by removing cigarettes from the pack, one can create a cavity therein to receive the lighter when it is then reversely clipped onto the pack. The German Pat. No. 2,301,984 to Reege shows a hard cigarette pack with an edge pocket adapted to receive a cigarette lighter. The resultant oversize pack cannot be stored in a shirt pocket.
My above-identified copending application discloses a gas-fueled ultra-thin cigarette lighter in a card format which lends itself to insertion between the corresponding faces of the inner and outer wrappers of a standard crushable cigarette pack so that the smoker is never at a loss for a light and the inserted lighter functions as a stiffener to prevent crushing of the pack.
The lighter in my copending application is constituted by a card-like body having a shallow reservoir therein filled with liquefied gas. Fitting into a corner cut-out in the body is a lighter assembly whose thickness is no greater than that of the body. The assembly includes a valve-controlled nozzle coupled to the reservoir and an adjacent thumb wheel against which a flint is pressed such that when the wheel is turned it abrades the flint to generate sparks that ignite vapor emitted from the nozzle.
In the lighter assembly disclosed in my prior patent application, in order to operate the lighter one must first lift a normally-closed cowl which is operatively coupled to the valve so that when the cowl is lifted, the valve is opened to release gas. One must then operate the thumb wheel engaged by a flint to generate sparks for igniting the gas. Thus the user is required to carry out two actions in sequence to produce a light.